Why am I so shit at making cakes?

[LadyRachetine]

I am so frustrated!

It’s my mums 60th this weekend and I thought it would be nice to make her a rose flavoured cake, as she loves rose. I bake a bit, make good cookies, brownies etc, but somehow my cakes always look a bit... crap. Anyway. I decided to keep it simple, just plain buttercream with some Turkish delight on top.

It looks so shit! I’m gutted! It’s a very unattractive shade of pink and the Turkish delight looks like squares of jelly. I don’t feel like I can possibly give it to her! She would be so nice about it, and my husband said it looks fine, but it just looks awful.

Is there a secret to making good cakes? What am I doing wrong???

There’s nothing wrong with it.

Could you coat the turkish delight pieces in icing sugar to make them look less like chunks of jelly? I think I've only seen turkish delight in an icing sugar coating (apart from in chocolates). It's good though!

I wouldn't keep messing with it. Honestly, it looks good to me.

You need to name change to LadyFanny

Agree with PP that it’s not as bad as you think! However, I think the piping (any piping) does make it look quite old fashioned, especially combined with the colour, and the Turkish delight pieces are a bit big.

Definitely definitely don’t attempt the drip icing effect - there is no way if you’ve never done it before you’ll get it to look like the photos you see.

I’d get on Pinterest and just copy something you see (more or less exactly copy - eg don’t improvise with adding large Turkish delight bits) - rose petals sounds good, white choc shards sounds good. Maybe some kind of silver sprinkles, eg balls or stars? I wouldn’t add the rose petals until very soon before serving, in case the colour bleeds into the buttercream and/or they go soft.

I'm not sure if white chocolate would be a great taste combination - what about sprinking crushed pistachios on the top? Rose + pistachio is a great combination - along with the rose petals suggested previously?

I think it looks fine but you could tone down the pink with a contrasting colour - ribbon or sprinkles or something.
A white or cream?

Just wondering why you have made the cake today, if it's for her birthday at the weekend, as it won't be great by then. Why not treat this as a practice run and make another on the day, or day before if you won't have time on the day.

Oooh pistachio! Thats it

Alrighty, I agree with lots of PP that the piping is a dated so I’ve smoothed that off; I’ll go to the shop tomorrow and try and find some decorations. Not sure what to do if I don’t drip though?? Ill have a nose on Pinterest now.

In other news, husband had cleaned the kitchen and put the dishwasher on in my absence so at least that’s sorted. Has lifted my mood a lot!

@DietrichandDiMaggio it’s actually Wednesday, not too sure why I said this weekend really! I was typing fast and very cross haha. Hoping it will still be ok for Wednesday?

Pistachio is an interesting idea, I’ll have to come up with a cunning way to see if she likes them. The Waitrose website is showing dried rose petals so I’m going to head there tomorrow.

I’m quite a decent baker and I’ve never attempted the drip thing because I’m pretty sure it’d be impossible to get the icing consistency exactly right so that it drips and stops - I think it would almost certainly just drip to the bottom and then pool...

How about shards? Not totally sure if white choc or dark choc alkyd be better with rose, but these are quite easy to make an look impressive. Eg

instructions 1

instructions 2

Or just go quite simple with rose petals and sprinkles. Eg just round the top flat edge, not all over.

Also agree with others - why are you making a cake for the weekend today? Seems a lot in advance - are you planning on keeping it in the fridge (stops buttercream spoiling/melting, cake might dry out) or not in the fridge (cake might still dry out, buttercream left out for that long might go a bit yuk)... Do you have time to do it on Friday (for Saturday) or Saturday (for Sunday)?

Ah, you’re making it for Wednesday! That’s not so bad! (Although personally I have only made cakes the day before).

Pistachio is a brilliant idea. Will go beautifully with rose petals. In fact it’s such a good match with rose that I’m annoyed I didn’t think to suggest it. Get some proper Turkish delight too - cut them in half, place cut side down. Possibly also some white chocolate chips/shavings. Although dark chocolate would be the best flavour match imo.

It will look grown up and refined.

Pistachio with the rose great idea, both aesthetically and taste wise 👍

White choc would look best, I think.

But I do think it will muddy the waters a little flavour wise, and possibly aesthetically too.

Whatever you end up doing I’m sure it will be lovely.👍

I learnt to bake during lockdown and here’s my (I think) 3rd cake. The chocolate drip isn’t too hard actually-I use a squeezy bottle (like a ketchup or mustard bottle you might see at a hotdog stand) but you can use a spoon too. I heat cream and add it to chocolate in a glass bowl once heated, then practise the drip on the side of a glass to see how far it drips. The cake must be chilled and the drip must be room temp. This cake btw was made for a neighbour to give to his grandma and he put it in the boot and smashed it up before it got to her-I was devastated! 🙈

Chocolate drip over the buttercream may make your buttercream spoil.

I think I'd scrape that off and use it as a crumb coat. Put a night pale pink on, smooth the top, and pile some Turkish delight in the middle- use some yellow too, if you have it. I'd also leave the rosewater out of the buttercream.

Your cake looks lovely! Really retro and cool

I would not be risking any sort of drip on a buttercream, that's a potential recipe for disaster. What I might consider though is covering it in fondant and then decorating that. Doesn't have to be the entire cake that's converted either, maybe just the sides. Or roll the sides in chocolate curls? Cover them in Milky Way crispy rolls for a super professional finish? Lots of ideas

Two words....Betty Crocker

And your cake looks fab op!

A drip cake is easier than it looks, I made one last week for the first time...for the drip I just heated up double cream and added chocolate chips to the bowl and give it a good stir. Was the perfect consistency and dripped really well.

How about something like this? It looks simple to do but I think looks pretty elegant. You could switch the rose petals for chopped pistachios if you thought it would be too much pink with the pink icing